Sports

Local stars shine in VBCA’s All-Star Saturday

WINDSOR, Vt. – Going out with a bang.

The local area was well represented in Saturday’s VBCA senior all-star games hosted by Windsor High School, and our local stars showed out in their last high school basketball game against some of the best competition in the state.

To start the day, head coach of the D3/D4 girls south team, Chieftains’ Terry Farrell, had the pleasure of rolling out five local athletes to start the game. He started Windsor’s Brooke McKeen to go along with his four Green Mountain seniors Paige Karl, Maya Lewis, Annie Lamson, and Rachel Guerra (GM’s Hannah Buffum was unable to play). Karl and McKeen are cousins, and they were able to play together in the same unit.

That starting unit had the south team up 14-6 over the first seven minutes of game action. Lewis and McKeen each had six early points and Lamson hit on a floater in the lane, while Karl was making nice pass after nice pass. 

The way the subbing worked on Saturday was that teams had three lineups each playing seven-minute intervals in 21-minute halves.

The group didn’t come back onto the floor together until the final seven minutes of the game, with south up 43-38, and the local girls made plays down the stretch to seal the win over the north, 53-50.

Guerra made a runner at the 6:30 mark to push the lead to seven, followed by two buckets from Lewis and another from McKeen. When north stormed back to get within a point, 51-50 with 20 seconds left, Lamson grabbed the game-sealing rebound and hit from the line to clinch the win.

“It was fun to coach a group of all-stars,” said Farrell, who coached the game for a second time, having coached his twin daughters years back. “Having five players voted to the team by the other coaches shows the strength of our team this year.”

In the D3/D4 boys game that followed, it was once again the local players that got the south team off and running. 

Windsor’s Hunter Grela and Robert Slocum combined to score the south’s first 14 points, which was the total team output in the first seven minutes. Slocum had eight early points while Grela added six for the hometown fan-favorites. It was only fitting for the two senior boys to go out firing on their home floor that they’ve been so accustomed to shooting on.

They had the game tied at 14 apiece after the first seven minutes, and when they re-entered the game for the last seven minutes of the game, the north had put together a 72-59 lead. 

Slocum added a 3-pointer and a few assists late, but the south fell 92-76.

Following both the D3/D4 girls and boys games, the D1/D2 girls game tipped off with Springfield’s Hannah Crosby being the lone local talent selected to play.

She made her presence felt in the game with some of the best talent in the state. Playing in the middle time slot in the first half, Crosby put together a couple assists and finished a layup on a breakaway after blocking a north three-point attempt. Her layup put the south up 22-21 just before the buzzer sounded to get in the next group with 7 minutes left in the first half.

When Crosby re-entered with 14 minutes left in the game, the south had a 62-42 lead, and she didn’t take her foot off the gas. Continuous drives to the cup from Crosby had the north on its heels. She put together a couple jumpers and another assist, and south won 84-70.

When awards were being handed out, Green Mountain’s James Anderson was selected to the Dream Dozen team of outstanding underclassmen, and Windsor’s Olivia Rockwood was recognized for scoring her 1,000th point this year as well as being selected to the Dream Dozen. Rockwood currently has over 1,400 career points.

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